Anchorage Accountant Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Medical Practice

The Anchorage accountant who was indicted along with her husband to 39 counts that included bank fraud, wire fraud, fraudulent transactions with an access device, and aggravated identity theft in September of 2017 has pleaded guilty in a plea agreement according to the Department of Justice on Tuesday.

53-year-old Jill Diane Applebury, aka: “Jill Wetzsteon who was the owner/operator of Applebury Accounting Services submitted a guilty plea for four counts of Bank Fraud, a count of Wire Fraud, and a count of Fraudulent Transactions with an Access Device before Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess, DoJ revealed.

Prosecutors said in court that Applebury, who worked with an Anchorage medical practice as an independent contractor in the capacity of bookkeeper from the mid-1990s until March of 2013, defrauded that practice in several ways.

Applebury admitted during her guilty plea that she used funds from the practice to pay her Federal taxes from May 2008 to January 2010 by making “unauthorized and fraudulent transactions from the medical practice’s business bank account to the IRS.

She also took advantage of the practice’s profit-sharing plan which she did not qualify for, telling the third-party administrator that she had become a full-time employee of the practice in 2009. This falsification allowed her to participate in the profit-sharing plan at the start of 2010. The scheme caused the administrator to allocate $62,722.90 to Applebury for the unauthorized profit-sharing contributions in 2010 and 2011.

In addition, Applebury fraudulently transferred funds from the practice’s business bank account to pay for credit card charges for dining and travel that she and her husband incurred on her personal card. She also utilized the practice’s credit card to pay personal and the couple’s business bills that “included cell phone service for the Appleburys and members of their family, internet service for their residence, business licenses for businesses owned by Jill and Darin Applebury, automobile insurance for their personal vehicles, and other personal items.

Applebury also used the practice’s card to purchase approximately $3,000 worth of medical products for Rapid Recovery Medical Service, Inc, a business owned by her husband Darin Applebury.

The guilty plea, which was the result of the joint FBI/APD investigation could garner Applebury as much as 30 years in prison. She would also face restitution, fines and supervised release.